Quote:
Originally Posted by
tgva8889
Akroma was popular for 4 years after her printing, so much so that she was printed on the Time-Shifted Sheet and constantly referenced in Time Spiral Block.
Previous popularity is irrelevant to what you said. You stated she
still stood out today. I pointed out that did not seem to be true due to the obvious lack of usage.
Quote:
Phage received no such reference beyond her block.
I stated that I could remember what Phage did more precisely. Which makes some sense; Phage's "kill a player in one hit" ability is one-of-a-kind, whereas Akroma is just a bunch of already-existing abilities thrown onto one card (not to mention "kills creatures in one hit, kills players in one hit, and kills you if you don't hardcast her" is easier to remember than seven different abilities).
Quote:
Clearly, Akroma did something worth remembering, otherwise they wouldn't have made nearly so many cards to reference her. I mean, as late as M11 they were making Sword of Vengeance.
Hard to see that as a reference. It isn't named after her, she isn't in the flavor text, and unlike, say, Akroma's Memorial, it doesn't give all her abilities.
Quote:
I'm not sure 8 is still too much to actually cast. Some decks cast Elesh Norn and Drogskol Reaver for full mana cost these days. In Standard. Sure, there's a world of difference between 7 and 8, but it wasn't that long ago that 10 was an acceptable mana cost for cards that you could cast.
When was this? Granted, I suppose there were cards like the Eldrazi (Emrakul in particular), but they were colorless so they could be used more efficiently and had cards like Eye of Ugin to help out.
Quote:
The card is unlikely to see play for a combination of reasons, not purely because it costs 8.
I do not believe I ever stated that her casting cost
alone was the reason she was unlikely to see play.
Quote:
Comparing Avacyn the creature to Elspeth the planeswalker is a leap for me.
The point I was making was that both had the ability to make your stuff indestructible. That's all.
Quote:
A build-up of excitement doesn't necessitate "awesome tournament staple."
I should think it kind of should. Maybe not necessarily a major staple, but still something to impact various formats fairly well. And that's again my issue, I don't think any card has been built up as much as Avacyn, so it's disappointing that it seems like a card that just seems so...meh in terms of actual deck construction. I was hoping for something like Thalia or maybe even Delver, but it could've looked like it'd have less of an impact than Thalia and still satisfied me (say, like the non-Emrakul legendary Eldrazi). I have to agree with what others have said--if they had maybe dropped the power/toughness a bit so the casting cost could be lower, this card might have been more interesting.
Quote:
I can understand your disappointment that Avacyn is not a tournament-playable card from immediate glance. But I'm not sure why you thought she would be.
Because, yet again, if you're going to put a particular card in the name of the set, I feel it should really be something that will be played a lot more than this card is likely to be.
But let's even ignore the issue of tournament playability. Even ignoring that, the card still seems just...boring. Yet another fatty with a sweeping ability and a high casting cost. Yawn. Already saw it with Iona, Elesh Norn, and others, which I feel did it better. I wish there was a bit more zip to it, like with Emrakul or Progenitus or heck, even Akroma (who back in the day, admittedly, was fairly impressive). It's odd that despite having an ability as rare as "everything you have is indestructible" it still manages to feel so generic.
I admit I might be wrong. Maybe someone will come up with some nifty way to use this creature that I'm missing. Maybe there will be a card in the set that interface with it to give it better strategies. In a few months we'll have a better idea about the card. But at the moment, I'm very unimpressed with a creature that probably has had more buildup than any other card.